Impacts of Alcohol Use on the Cerebrum

Impacts of Alcohol use on the Cerebrum

Bonita McCarley

Stephanie Babb

Literature Review

04/11/2016

Impacts of Alcohol use on the Cerebrum

According to a study published by the American researcher J. Roizen, alcohol is present in most of the violent crimes. From data collected in the United States, it is known that 86% of the homicidal act under the influence of liquor. This also occurs in 37% of the assailants, 60% of sex offenders and 57% of cases of domestic violence. The numbers speak for themselves. Alcohol is one of the most addictive drugs and one of the psychoactive changes in the behavior of people with greater intensity. It does not have complete certainty of the factors involved in the Alcohol / violence dyad, but apparently closely related.

Effects of alcohol on the brain

The liquor disrupts the normal functioning of the brain. According to the hypothesis of disinhibition, alcohol weakens the functioning of the brain mechanisms that are responsible for restricting impulsive behaviors. That is why drunken person leaves emerge impulses, without measuring consequences and facts. Alcohol also generates reduced information processing in the brain. Hence, under the influence of this substance, a person may misinterpret social cues. For example, typical attitudes like a pat on the back come to be seen as a threatening gesture. Nor is there an adequate assessment of the risks of behavior. Who drinks liquor does not notice what may occur after a particular act.

However, some studies suggest an important nuance. In one experiment the response of a group of abstinent individuals against aggression, with others who had drunk compared. The differences were not very large. This suggests that the use of the substance alone is not what triggers the aggressive impulses. The difference lies in that while those sober define a limit, which does not drink alcohol.

Effects of Alcohol on the Brain

Several factors influence:

    General health

    The continuity of the habit of drinking

    Age, education, genetics, family history, gender

    The age at which started drinking

How do changes occur?

Liquor influences cerebrum science by modifying levels of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit signals that control points of view, practices, and feelings. Liquor expands the impacts of neurotransmitter GABA in the mind, which causes moderate developments and difficulty speaking. In the meantime, liquor hinders glutamate excitatory neurotransmitter, which increases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that creates the sensation of pleasure to drink.

The most significant and severe effects are:

1-Anxiety, depression, aggression, and stress

The cerebrum has an equalization of chemicals and liquor adjusts that change. This can affect

    Behavior

    Thoughts

    Feelings

    Emotions

Drinking makes sense to most people better, less anxious and more sociable. However, if a person drink too much, the brain begins to be affected, and feelings of pleasure can turn into feelings of anxiety, aggression or depression. If a person drink too much, they are more likely to develop depressive symptoms. Regularly drink down their serotonin levels in the brain, the neurotransmitter that regulates the mood. Also, drinking too much can have an adverse impact on relationships with family, friends, family and their work. This makes even greater depression and enters a vicious circle.

Some signs that have problems with alcohol are:

   Argue or have problem behaviors often or after drinking alcohol

    Depressed mood

    Insomnia

    You feel discouraged at all times

    Feeling anxious when a person usually feel calm

    Paranoia

2-prevents proper brain development in adolescents

Consuming large amounts of alcohol in adolescence may result in considerable difficulties for the brain to develop properly. The most notable deficits are difficulties in recovering the verbal and nonverbal information (language comprehension) and visual-spatial functioning. Teens are much more likely to develop cognitive deficits such as learning disabilities and memory. This is because they have not yet fully developed the brain, and at that stage, the brain is being remodeled with changes in neuronal connectivity of different brain parts.

 3-Hippocampus - Memory Corruption

Alcohol affects the hippocampus, the brain area involved in memory storage. Even a small amount of alcohol can make a person forget what they did while drunk. Binge drinking in the brain processes information more slowly and the ability to memorize decreases. It is when given the typical memory loss the night before in hangovers. This loss of short-term memory involves no brain damage, although the frequency if they will. That is, having continuous heavy drinking binges frequently damage the brain and its ability to memorize. Therefore, if a person has been drinking heavily for years, they may have difficulty learning even a day that does not drink. It is when the condition may be permanent.

4-Impulsivity-Cortex Prefrontal

Prefrontal cortex regulates the impulsivity and is involved in the organization of behavior. Drinking too much can affect connections in these areas and cause impulsive things that were not done in typical situations are made.

5-prevents the growth of new cells

It is a known that the use of alcohol can deter the brain from its full capability of functioning. The brain is the very vital organ that is needed to function as the synchronizing center of consciousness and cerebral and nervous system.. However, with high doses of alcohol, the growth of these new cells is interrupted and long-term results in deficits in areas such as the hippocampus. Although the above process still needs to be confirmed by several studies, if known that during high intakes of alcohol can lose thousands of neurons. During a binge, a person can reduce the number of neurons in the brain by 1000000.